New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen celebrates his win last June in the NASCAR Cup at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. This year's NASCAR event in Mexico will be in Tulum, where the airport will be converted into a race track in April. (Daniel Augusto / Cuartoscuro.com)
NASCAR is returning to Mexico in 2026, but this time it’s the domestic NASCAR México Series — and the venue is an active airport on the Caribbean coast, not the famed Mexico City Formula 1 circuit.
Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport in Tulum, Quintana Roo, will be converted into a temporary oval April 25-26 for the third weekend of the 2026 NASCAR México season, officials announced this week.
The racing will be a paid portion of the new, mostly free Tulum Air Show, organized by the Mexican Air Force and the Mexico Aerospace Fair (Famex).
The four-day program April 23-26 will mix stock-car races with aerobatic displays (involving F-5 jets, helicopters, drones and other devices), aerospace exhibitions and safety workshops at Military Air Base No. 20 and adjoining airport facilities.
The invitation to race in Tulum came from Famex, not from NASCAR México, officials said.
“The project has accumulated over six months of joint work with the Air Force, and the intention is to turn this participation into a recurring relationship with Famex,” NASCAR México president Jimmy Morales said at a news conference Tuesday.
Organizers project roughly 30,000 attendees across the air and racing components. The latter will include the usual practice and qualifying sessions and two races: the main event in the NASCAR México Series and a second-tier Challenge Series race.
As of now, the main event has not been given a name; last year’s NASCAR Cup Series main event in Mexico City was the Viva México 250.
Moreover, organizers haven’t given specifics on the footprint of the racing oval, such as whether it will use parts of the airfield and runway.
That 100-lap race was won by New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen in front of a “sparse” crowd within the 100,000-capacity facility, “with many grandstands empty,” as reported by Autoracing1.com.
Though NASCAR does not announce attendance figures, the fan mag noted “there were reports in Mexico that they sold only 15,000 grandstand seats and the rest were freebies.”
Citing scheduling conflicts around the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City and travel logistics, NASCAR opted to drop Mexico City from the 2026 NASCAR Cup schedule, with some reports also questioning the economics of the event.
There was talk for a while that IndyCar would fill the void, but the open-wheel racing series best known for the Indianapolis 500 announced it will not visit CDMX in 2026.
The racing circuit that will visit Mexico City in 2026 is Formula 1, which will be back for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Nov. 1, preceded by two days practice sessions and qualifying.
In addition, Mexico City will be hosting a massive interactive showcase called the Formula 1 Exhibition starting March 20.
Organizers for the NASCAR México weekend in Tulum say they expect to max out hotel capacity in a tourism market that is generally saturated but has been slumping recently.
NASCAR México will kick off its 12-race 2026 season March 14-15 in San Luis Potosí and conclude it Nov. 14-15 in Puebla.
Since the project's inception, activists have been demanding that work be stopped on the Cancún-Tulum stretch of the Maya Train until compliance with environmental safeguards could be assured. This week, a judge made precisely that ruling. (MACC)
Construction on a key remaining stretch of the Maya Train was halted after a federal appeals court granted a “definitive suspension” until the designated authorities confirm that the project complies with environmental regulations.
The civil organization Sélvame del Tren (Save me from the train) was the plaintiff in the case, which resulted in the court ordering the government to take action to preserve the environment and carry out inspections, verifications and conservation measures in the natural areas that the unfinished stretch of Section 5 crosses.
One of the most serious environmental risks in the construction of the railway is the piling of unstable support posts into underground caverns, cenotes and aquifers. (@AlexItesm/on X)
The ruling orders the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) to oversee and guarantee adherence to the court’s orders.
Section 5 of the 1,554-kilometer passenger rail line runs south from Cancún and is being extended from Playa del Carmen to Tulum, two of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations.
This 65-kilometer section of the Maya Train has been a focus of environmentalists’ objections since construction began, as it involved drilling through underground rock formations and piercing a significant portion of the region’s delicate cave system with steel and concrete piles.
Activists who have denounced the project since its conception called Section 5 the most damaging to biodiversity, citing the loss of approximately 3.6 million trees. In 2024, they revealed that more than 120 caves — a critical part of the Maya Jungle’s aquifer system — had been damaged.
The Maya Train, which was inaugurated in 2024, runs a 1,554-kilometer loop around the Yucatán Peninsula, connecting the region’s archaeological sites, beaches and cities like Mérida and Cancún. (Ruta Tren Maya)
The court’s ruling is not a complete surprise. Last year, the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) admitted that construction of the train had indeed caused environmental damage, citing Section 5 in particular. Semarnat confirmed that at least eight caverns and cenotes were significantly compromised to accommodate the train.
In a statement, Sélvame del Tren said the decision represents a step toward “the protection of our natural resources and guarantees that verification, inspection, conservation and safeguarding work will be carried out in response to the corresponding public complaints.”
Meanwhile, freight track construction continues
On Thursday, military engineer Ricardo Vallejo Suárez provided an update on the progress of the Maya Train freight service project, which could begin operations later this year.
Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press briefing, Vallejo said the four multimodal cargo terminals are about 25% completed.
General Vallejo reported on Thursday that the four Maya Train cargo terminals are 25% completed.(Hazel Cárdenas / Presidencia)
The works include the construction of more than 950 kilometers of new track to create a cargo circuit that will run through the Yucatán Peninsula.
This includes 101 kilometers of yard tracks in the freight complexes, plus 70 kilometers of new track to connect the city of Mérida with Progreso and the new industrial corridor from Poxilá to Mérida.
Additionally, a 7-kilometer trunk line will connect the Cancún passenger terminal with the new multimodal freight terminal.
Vallejo also said the commissioning of the double track in Sections 4 and 5 that run through Quintana Roo has been officially granted.
The Tate Modern, one of the world's foremost museums of modern and contemporary art, will launch a major Frida-focused exhibition starting June 25. (Shutterstock)
How did Frida Kahlo go from being a relatively unknown Mexican artist to one of the most recognizable cultural phenomena of the 20th century? That’s the question the Tate Modern will tackle this summer in London, with a a major exhibition dubbed “Frida: The Making of an Icon.”
The exhibition will feature 36 pieces that represent Kahlo’s various roles — the dedicated wife, the intellectual, the modern artist and the political activist. Some of her most famous and celebrated paintings will be showcased among those 36 paintings, including “Untitled (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird)” (1940), “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress” (1926) and “Self-Portrait with Loose Hair” (1938).
One of the works on display will be Kahlo’s “Untitled [Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird],” completed in 1940. (Harry Ransom Center via the Tate Modern)Personal items like jewelry, dresses, photographs and memorabilia will also accompany the art work to explore how her art and personal life influenced artists beyond her generation and culture.
The Tate Modern has said that together, these items “reveal how Kahlo’s story continues to be reimagined and reclaimed by new generations, cementing her place as one of the most influential figures in the history of art.”
The Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world and holds significant influence in the art world. Nonetheless, museum curators say they’ve faced some obstacles in trying to secure paintings from the coveted artist due to her surge in popularity. Notably, the pop star Madonna — who owns five Kahlo works including “My Birth” and “The Wounded Deer” — reportedly rejected the museum’s loan requests. The last time Tate hosted a Kahlo’s exhibition, it showcased over 50 works.
The upcoming exhibition will explore how Kahlo built and projected her identity in her paintings and personal style. Visitors will then trace Kahlo’s connection to the surrealist movement through works that were exhibited at Kahlo’s first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1938, and later in Paris.
The exhibition will also look at how the Mexican migrant movement embraced Kahlo as a powerful emblem of cultural pride and political resistance in the 1960s, catapulting Kahlo’s name to a wider international audience.
The show will end at the “Fridamania” room, which charts Kahlo’s transformation into a mass-market phenomenon with a display of over 200 commercial pieces of merchandise related to her art, image, style and persona.
The Shah of Iran and his family in the 1970s, before their exile in Cuernavaca. (Bellavista1/Wikimedia Commons)
Cuernavaca, 1979. Just 85 kilometers south of Mexico City, this sun-drenched city had long been a favored escape for the wealthy — a place where the climate was temperate, the villas were grand, and discretion was understood. Former president Luis Echeverría kept an estate here, and actress María Félix frequented its famous garden restaurants and glamorous private parties. For both Mexico City’s elite and international celebrities, Cuernavaca offered a weekend getaway from the capital’s chaos. For the Shah of Iran, it was a getaway of a literal nature.
A king without a kingdom
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, colloquially known simply as the Shah, was a controversial figure in Iranian history. His reign began in 1941 when his father was forced to abdicate the crown. For nearly 40 years, the Shah westernized Iranian society, launching programs that strengthened land reform, industrial growth, expanded education and women’s suffrage. However, his lavish lifestyle and repressive tactics created societal friction, and by 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of the Persian powerhouse and the monarchy fell. The Shah was exiled.
He left Tehran in January, spending brief stints in Egypt, Morocco and the Bahamas before declining an invitation to settle in Panama. It was Mexico that had been on his mind for years, and it was in Mexico that he wanted to live. In his memoir, “Answer to History” — written largely during his exile and published posthumously in 1980 — he noted that he had “enjoyed its scenery and people” during a 1975 state visit to Acapulco and various archaeological sites, including Chichén Itzá. A warm relationship with José López Portillo, whom he had known as Mexico’s Finance Minister before López Portillo became president, strengthened the appeal. For all of these reasons, Mexico ranked first on what the Shah described as his own list of preferred places of exile — and thanks to a deal brokered partly with the U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Mexico accepted him.
90 days on Avenida Palmira
With their Bahamian visas set to expire in two days, Mexican authorities extended an official invitation to the Shah, his wife — Farah Pahlavi, known formally as both the Empress and the Queen — and their 18-year-old son, Reza. Aides flew ahead to scout a location, settling on a vacant villa on a prestigious, tree-lined stretch of road called Avenida Palmira, then known for its grand French-inspired homes. The family landed at Mexico City International Airport on June 10, 1979, where a small motorcade was waiting to take them south. The Villa del Shah, as it came to be known, sat near a riverbank surrounded by lush gardens and rolling countryside. It was beautiful — though the Shah noted in “Answer to History” that the area was, less romantically, “thoroughly infested with mosquitoes.”
According to a report by Infobae supported by The Washington Post, the family rented the villa for $1,000 per day. Security was elaborate: three concentric rings of protection surrounded the property at all times, totaling 72 people — 12 Iranian agents in the innermost circle, 20 Americans in the middle ring, and 40 Mexican agents in the outer perimeter. Inside, the household ran as the Shah had been accustomed to in Iran. Meals were multi-course affairs of meat and fish, wine and champagne, all served on sparkling silver or gold-plated dishware. The Shah received notable visitors during this period, including Henry Kissinger and former President Richard Nixon, both of whom paid personal visits to the villa. Otherwise, the family kept largely to themselves, socializing very little with neighbors or the wider community.
Table 14 at Las Mañanitas
The Shah and his family were rarely seen in public, with two exceptions. The first was the Racquet Club, where the Shah and his son Reza played tennis. The second was Las Mañanitas, a celebrated garden restaurant set among lush grounds filled with exotic birds, which remains one of Cuernavaca’s most storied dining destinations. According to Infobae, the family always sat at table 14. Security staff would arrive at varying hours ahead of them, order a single drink, and occupy the surrounding tables until the family was ready to leave.
The Shah typically requested something light — often a dish the staff called pollito con leche, a very tender preparation served with steamed vegetables. His son Reza, by contrast, had developed a taste for Mexican food and usually ordered sopa de tortilla. Word spread quickly, and visitors began making the trip from Mexico City and Puebla simply for the chance to glimpse the royal family from a distance.
Nonetheless, the Shah spent most of his time in the villa working on “Answer to History,” his account of his reign and the revolution that ended it. He was also making plans for the future — commissioning the construction of a fortified private mansion nearby that he and his family could call their own. According to a 1987 Los Angeles Times article, the three-story walled structure was to include seven bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, seven fireplaces, a spa, an outdoor pool and a grand terrace. It was completed in 1981. The Shah never saw the finished product. He died in 1980.
If you visit Las Mañanitas restaurant in Cuernavaca, ask for table 14. That was the Shah’s favorite. (Las Mañanitas)
A secret illness and an unwanted one-way ticket
Throughout his time in Cuernavaca, the Shah was carrying a secret he had kept even from his Mexican medical staff, who were treating what they believed to be malaria when called for his severe case of jaundice. He had been quietly battling lymphoma for six years. David Rockefeller, then-Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and a longtime supporter of the Shah, knew of the true diagnosis and sent a private physician to the villa. It is worth noting that Rockefeller’s concern may not have been purely out of the goodness of his heart — Chase Manhattan Bank had extended a $500 million loan to Iran shortly before the Shah’s exile, giving Rockefeller considerable financial interest in the former monarch’s survival.
By October, the Shah’s condition had worsened to the point that his medical team determined he required treatment that could not be provided in Mexico. On the 22nd of that month, the Shah and the Empress made their way back to Mexico City International Airport to board a Gulfstream jet bound for the U.S. for admission to a New York hospital. News of his arrival, along with photographs and reports showing his failing health, quickly signalled to the public that the ex-world leader was seriously ill.
The Shah’s Mexican visa renewal request denied
His treatments concluded at the end of November, and the Shah fully expected to return to Cuernavaca. His Mexican visa was set to expire on Dec. 9, but he had reason for confidence — President López Portillo had told him on two separate occasions to consider Mexico his home and that he was welcome there. However, while making final travel arrangements, Mexico unexpectedly rescinded the invitation.
According to a New York Times report on Nov. 30, it was the Iran Hostage Crisis that caused a sudden change of heart. Mexico’s Foreign Minister issued a formal statement: “In the face of this new situation, the Mexican Government has pondered all the essential factors, aware of its duty to protect above all the vital interests of the nation. It has reached the conclusion that it would be contrary to these interests to renew the tourist visa granted to the ex‑Shah.”
Legend, legacy and what remains
How Cuernavaca’s residents felt about their elusive royal neighbor is difficult to say. The family kept so thoroughly to themselves that the Shah remained more rumor than reality for most locals — which perhaps explains why the most enduring story from his time there cannot be verified. According to an urban legend that still circulates in the city, a helicopter flew over the villa on Avenida Palmira one night and riddled the building with machine gun fire in an assassination attempt, forcing the family to flee to a safe house — possibly the Hotel y Spa Hacienda de Cortés, which still maintains a Suite del Shah today. No evidence has ever surfaced to confirm the story, and it is most likely just that: legend. But in a stay defined by secrecy, it is perhaps unsurprising that myth rushed in to fill the gaps.
The former Iranian royal family never returned to Mexico. The Shah died in Cairo, Egypt on July 27, 1980, less than a year after leaving Cuernavaca. His 90 days in this quiet Mexican city had been, in many ways, one of the last peaceful interludes of his life: a period of garden lunches, tennis matches and long hours spent writing his account of a world that had already disappeared. Empress Farah Pahlavi still survives her husband, and divides her time today between Paris and the Washington, D.C. area. Their son Reza lives with his family in a suburb of Washington as well.
For those who want to see where that chapter unfolded, traces of history remain. Table 14 at Las Mañanitas still sits among the birds and gardens of one of Cuernavaca’s most beloved restaurants. The Hotel y Spa Hacienda de Cortés offers overnight stays in its Suite del Shah. And on Avenida Palmira, a luxury development now stands on the land where the Villa del Shah once did — the original house long gone, but the address not forgotten.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog or follow her on Instagram.
Topics at Thursday's presidential presser included the new AIFA train, fuel smuggling and rumors of fentanyl-laced tamales in Puebla after a mass food poisoning incident. (Hazel Cárdenas / Presidencia)
President Claudia Sheinbaum held her Thursday morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City before traveling to Puebla to take part in a Mexican Army Day event.
Here is a recap of the president’s Feb. 19 mañanera.
CDMX-AIFA rail line scheduled to open before Easter
Sheinbaum told reporters that the train line between the Buenavista station in central Mexico City and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) in México state will begin operations “before Holy Week.”
Holy Week begins this year on March 29 — Palm Sunday — and concludes on Easter Sunday on April 5.
Before Sheinbaum indicated that the CDMX-AIFA line will open next month, the government’s rail czar Andrés Lajous said that railroad verification tests were concluding and the commencement of “dynamic tests” was just one day away.
The train line to AIFA is an extension of Mexico City’s suburban railroad, which links Buenavista to Cuautitlán in México state.
The train will take passengers 30 kilometers from the Buenavista Station to the AIFA airport in 43 minutes, connecting with the Tren Suburbano and Line B of the Mexico City Metro. (Andrea Murcia / Cuartoscuro.com)
The airport is located about 50 kilometers north of central Mexico City in the México state municipality of Zumpango. The federal government hopes that the opening of the train line will lead to an increase in passenger numbers at AIFA. The trip from Buenavista to the airport will take around 40 minutes.
Mexico seeking extradition of U.S. businesspeople allegedly involved in fuel smuggling
Sheinbaum told reporters that more arrests are still to be made in connection with the crime of huachicol fiscal — i.e. the evasion of taxes on gasoline and diesel brought into the country.
Sheinbaum said that it was up to the Federal Attorney General’s Office to provide the names of those businesspeople, if it is in a position to do so.
Asked whether authorities were seeking the extradition of “the Jensens,” the president responded that they, “among others,” are wanted in Mexico.
The Jensens are a Utah couple and their adult sons, all of whom face charges in the United States for allegedly smuggling US $300 million worth of crude oil in collaboration with Mexican criminal organizations.
Fentanyl-laced tamales?
A reporter asked the president what information she had about the case of a 10-year-old girl who tested positive for fentanyl after eating a tamal at a street food stand in the municipality of Huauchinango, Puebla.
The Puebla government said on Tuesday that seven children received medical care after they presented symptoms of food poisoning “allegedly resulting from the consumption of tamales.”
Six of the children were “stabilized” and discharged from hospital, but a 10-year-old girl remains “under medical observation” after she tested positive for fentanyl, the government said in a statement. It said that the relevant authorities were advised of the situation and would investigate.
After seven Puebla children were hospitalized for symptoms of food poisoning after eating tamales, one girl tested positive for fentanyl, leading to speculation that the tamales were laced with the drug. (File photo)
Sheinbaum said she asked federal Attorney General Ernestina Godoy and security and health officials to find out “if it really was fentanyl” that made the girl ill, and if so, to investigate how the drug got into the tamales.
Later on Thursday, the Puebla Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said that the girl’s positive test for fentanyl was due to medication she was administered in hospital, rather than something she ate.
It said that urine samples were collected from children and adults who ate the tamales in question, and testing didn’t detect the presence of any “drugs of abuse.”
The FGE also said that samples of the tamales were being tested to “determine with precision the possible origin of the poisoning.”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Guanajuato International Airport, also known as the El Bajío International Airport, is strategically located in the economically growing El Bajío region of north-central Mexico, near Aguascalientes and the underserved San Luis Potosí. (Guanajuato International Airport)
The Guanajuato International Airport is getting a massive facelift, with a total of 2.88 billion pesos (US $166.8 million) earmarked for improvements through the next four years.
Guanajuato Governor Libia Dennise García made the announcement on Wednesday, saying in a social media post that the “most important modernization phase of the last two decades … will strengthen the airport’s operational capacity, improve passenger experience and consolidate Guanajuato’s connectivity with Mexico and the world.”
The new investment ensures that the ongoing expansion project — which saw 740 million pesos (US $42.9 million) spent in 2025 — will modernize strategic infrastructure and support the airport’s sustained growth.
The announcement was made after consultations with the Airport Terminal Advisory Commission and meetings with Jessica Paola Olivo Moreno, the administrator of the Pacific Airport Group (GAP), which manages the airport.
The funds will be disbursed over the next four years: 222 million pesos (US $12.86 million) in 2026; 705 million pesos ($40.8 million) in 2027; 671 million pesos ($38.9 million) in 2028; and 523 million pesos ($30.3 million) in 2029.
Key improvements will include the expansion of the terminal building by more than 23 percent, allowing for more streamlined security, immigration and boarding procedures, as well as enhanced customer service.
The baggage claim area will become 49% larger and two new lines will be added at the Inspection Point. Also part of the expansion plan are three new boarding gates, bringing the total to nine, as well as two new baggage carousels.
Additionally, five autonomous immigration checkpoints will be established so as to expedite passenger flow and the Last Waiting Room area will be expanded by 150%.
The airfield will also get a makeover, with the aircraft apron expanded by 58% and three new airplane gates added, bringing the total to 15.
The airport — also known as El Bajío International Airport and located in the municipality of Silao — handles over 3 million passengers annually and maintains connections with more than 21 national and international destinations.
Mexico imports roughly 75% of its natural gas from the U.S. — much of which comes from fracking operations just across the border in Texas. (Shutterstock)
President Claudia Sheinbaum indicated on Wednesday that her government could allow a form of sustainable fracking in order to increase domestic production of natural gas, a fuel that Mexico currently imports from the United States in large quantities.
A decision to allow the controversial oil and gas extraction technique would effectively reverse the policy of the previous federal government, which, under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blocked the execution of fracking projects.
Sheinbaum herself pledged in late 2024 that there would be no hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, during her government.
However, at her Wednesday morning press conference, the president acknowledged that a group of experts is assessing whether it’s “feasible” to carry out fracking with recycled water and “other chemicals” and “other ways that don’t have the environmental impacts that hydraulic fracturing has today.”
“All the gas that we import from Texas comes from hydraulic fracturing,” she said.
“So, this is a study, there is no decision [yet] and everything will be transparent,” Sheinbaum said.
President Sheinbaum’s anti-fracking position has softened since her election campaign. She said Wednesday there’s “no decision yet” on whether Pemex will move forward with hydraulic fracturing projects. (Andrea Murcia / Cuartoscuro.com)
“But there is a very important thing and that’s sovereignty. How can we produce more gas in our country while increasing renewable sources of energy?” added the president, who noted that Mexico imports from the United States around 75% of the natural gas it uses and highlighted that many Mexican power plants depend on the fuel.
Sheinbaum acknowledged that she opposed fracking for “many years” due to concerns about contamination and the use of water “in places where there is no water.”
But “the quest” now is to develop “technologies that don’t have these environmental impacts and which allow gas to be obtained without contaminating, with water recycling and other schemes, and in places where there is no nearby population,” she said.
“But it is still under study,” Sheinbaum stressed.
She also emphasized that fracking could only take place with the approval of local communities.
“But yes, it’s a topic for general discussion about how we can strengthen the energy sovereignty of our country,” Sheinbaum said.
In hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, water mixed with chemicals and sand is injected into shale formations to flush out natural gas. The high pressure injections cause cracks that can lead to chemicals leaching into groundwater. (Shutterstock)
The president’s remarks came six months after the federal government presented a 10-year strategic plan for state oil company Pemex. At the time, Reuters reported that fracking “to tap unconventional hydrocarbon deposits and boost oil and gas production” is part of the plan. The news agency also wrote that Sheinbaum had “signed off on the production method, … even though she had said during her 2024 election campaign she would not allow it.”
While the López Obrador administration vetoed fracking operations, “Pemex has been fracking for years in some onshore fields near the Gulf of Mexico coast,” Reuters reported in August, adding that the state oil company “does not disclose how much production is generated that way.”
Based on the president’s remarks on Wednesday, the expansion of fracking in Mexico is possible, even likely, but not certain.
What is certain is that Sheinbaum is no longer completely opposed to the oil and gas extraction technique that has long been strongly opposed by environmental groups and activists around the world.
The El País newspaper reported earlier this month that experts and “politicians in Sheinbaum’s inner circle” to whom it spoke say that the president has reached the conclusion that “it’s worth facing the political cost” associated with allowing fracking in order to “take advantage of the resources already identified by Pemex in the states of Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Veracruz.”
“The objective behind this major pragmatic shift is for Mexico to stop depending on natural gas imports from the United States and achieve energy sovereignty,” El País wrote.
Citing affirmations made by the Tamaulipas Ministry of Energy Development based on calculations by Russian energy company Lukoil, the El Economista newspaper reported that the production of liquid hydrocarbons in Mexico could increase by 700,000 barrels per day via fracking.
El País reported that Pemex would seek private investment in order to develop fracking projects, but it mentioned a much lower outlay of around $1 billion “to reactivate wells that have already been studied.”
According to the 10-year plan for Pemex, the exploitation of unconventional natural gas resources in Mexico would lead to a cumulative addition of 303 billion cubic feet of gas by 2030.
Reuters reported that “Pemex’s plan highlighted technological advances made over the last decade in well design, drilling and completion that it said would minimize environmental impacts and preserve freshwater resources.”
Alfredo Guzmán, a former deputy director of exploration at Pemex, told El País that “northern Mexico has enough natural gas, in both tight and permeable rock formations, to meet the country’s needs and have surpluses for export.”
“All that’s needed is for the authorities to authorize the projects to extract it,” he said.
Guzmán highlighted that fracking has occurred in Mexico since the 1960s, and declared that it’s a “safe technique.”
Ariel Valenzuela, a former Pemex productivity coordinator, said that Mexico is “completely vulnerable as a country because practically 70% to 80% of our gas comes from the United States.”
“If they decide to cut off our supply, they’ll leave us in the dark. So, if we have that resource right now, why not try to use it? For national security, it should be a priority,” he told El País.
According to Pemex’s 10-year plan, Mexico could produce roughly 303 billion cubic feet of gas by 2030 using techniques like fracking to access unconventional natural gas resources. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Alma Porres, a former chief of Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission, noted that “the gas we import from the United States comes from unconventional fields.”
“And just as deposits cross borders, so does the environment. If we say we are going to protect the environment, the reality is that right across the border they are exploiting unconventional fields; in other words, our environmental logic doesn’t hold up here,” she told El País.
“Instead, we should be looking at how to use the most innovative techniques to protect the environment on our side, and how to enforce the strictest regulations to ensure that protection, while also meeting the [energy sovereignty] goals set by this government. Regulations work, and the government should oversee the entire unconventional‑extraction chain to ensure they are followed, so that the public knows it will be done safely,” Porres said.
‘President, remember your promise: No to fracking’
The Mexican Alliance against Fracking, a collective made up of more than 40 non-government organizations, posted a clear message to its X account on Wednesday: “President, remember your promise: No to fracking.”
The alliance also published “10 lies with which they want to sell fracking to us,” each of which it sought to debunk.
“Fracking is the route toward the country’s energy independence,” was one of the alleged lies.
“Fracking makes us dependent on foreign companies,” the anti-fracking alliance countered.
🧵 Averigua las 10 razones por las que rechazamos y exigimos la prohibición del Fracking. pic.twitter.com/ipRPagN5Bm
The alliance also sought to debunk claims that fracking is safe and uses insignificant amounts of water.
“Fracking continues contaminating the environment,” it said in response to one of the alleged “lies.”
“Fracking causes water stress and competes with human consumption and agricultural use,” the alliance wrote in response to another.
Alliance spokesperson Beatriz Olivera told El País that “treated water can be used” in fracking, but doing so is “expensive, and the industry prefers to minimize costs to maximize productivity.”
She also said that fracking requires a “cocktail” of hundreds of chemicals that can contaminate groundwater.
Olivera called on Sheinbaum to “listen to the voices of the people.”
“It seems she is only listening to the industry and fracking promoters,” she said.
In a statement published by Greenpeace after the presentation of the Pemex plan last August, the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking accused Sheinbaum of “betraying” the people who elected her due to her apparent shift in opinion on fracking.
“The technical language of the plan is carefully designed to avoid the forbidden word: ‘fracking.’ Instead, it refers to ‘complex geological formations,’ ‘new extraction schemes,’ and ‘unconventional plays,’ in clear reference to formations that require hydraulic fracturing. References to experiences in the United States and Argentina, the use of technologies to reduce freshwater consumption, and the need for private participation to address financial risks are unmistakable signs that fracking is back, disguised as energy innovation,” the alliance wrote.
“Fracking poses severe and unacceptable risks to human and environmental health. Exposure to pollutants released by this technique — such as heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, fine particles, radioactive substances, and endocrine disruptors — has been linked to birth defects, miscarriages, cancer, neurological damage, and chronic respiratory diseases, even at low doses and in populations far from the wells,” it said.
Among the NGO’s that belong to the Mexican Alliance against Fracking are Greenpeace México, Oxfam México and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The last time the 49ers played a regular-season game in Mexico City was in 2022, when they beat the Arizona Cardinals 38-10. Jimmy Garoppolo was their quarterback and the venue was still called Estadio Azteca. (Cuartoscuro)
The San Francisco 49ers are headed back to Mexico City in 2026, anchoring the NFL’s return to a market the league sat out for three straight seasons during stadium renovations and World Cup preparations.
The team with five Super Bowl championships from 1981 to 1994 will serve as the home team for a regular-season game at renovated Azteca Stadium — now tabbed Estadio Banorte in a 12-year naming-rights deal to help fund the work.
Al Guido, recently promoted to CEO of the 49ers, said the players are “excited to reunite with the Mexico Faithful.” (SF 49ers)
The 49ers’ opponent, along with the game date and kickoff time, will be announced when the full 2026 NFL schedule is revealed this spring.
Only the 49ers were announced this week, with the league treating it as a “home team designation” reveal.
We also know that the game will be played in December, according to a statement from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and that the league also has agreed to return to the Mexican capital for games in 2027 and 2028.
This year’s game will mark the 49ers’ third regular-season appearance in Mexico City after a 31-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in 2005 — the NFL’s first regular season game outside of the U.S. — and a 38-10 win over the Cardinals in 2022 before 78,427 fans.
The 2005 game drew a then-NFL-record crowd of 103,467 to Azteca Stadium, a decade ahead of a major refurbishment (VIP boxes, widened aisles, individual seats) that reduced the stadium’s capacity by about 20,000. That record fell to a 2009 Dallas Cowboys’ home game that drew 105,121 fans.
The 2022 game marked the NFL’s fifth regular-season game in Mexico City, including a run of games in 2016 (Oakland Raiders 27-20 over Houston Texans), 2017 (New England Patriots 33-8 over Raiders) and 2019 (Kansas City Chiefs 24-17 over Los Angeles Chargers). Each drew crowds in the mid-70,000s.
For 2026, the NFL has scheduled a record nine regular-season games across four continents. There will be games in seven countries at eight stadiums: Mexico City, Madrid, Munich, Melbourne, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and London (three games in two stadiums).
NFL Director General Arturo Olive said the league is “delighted” to have the 49ers back in Mexico City, and 49ers CEO Al Guido said the players are “excited to reunite with the Mexico Faithful.”
The 49ers are one of 10 teams that hold marketing rights in Mexico as part of the league’s Global Markets Program, an initiative to build brand awareness and fandom beyond the U.S.
Media reports have floated NFC West rivals such as the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams, as well as the Miami Dolphins, among potential opponents for the 49ers.
The 49ers will become the first team to play two international games in nonconsecutive weeks in a single season. In addition to the Mexico City game, they are slated to face the L.A. Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Week 1 of the 2026 season on either Sept. 9 or 10.
A solider approaches the clandestine plane after it was forced to land by military personnel engaged in an air chase. (Sedena)
A clandestine aircraft transporting drugs was intercepted as it flew over Oaxaca by members of the Defense Ministry (Sedena), resulting in the confiscation of 534 packages of cocaine weighing more than half a tonne.
The incident — which witnesses described as being straight out of Hollywood — resulted in the forced landing of the plane and the seizure of two pick-up trucks, as well as a pursuit on the ground as suspects scattered and fled.
The suspects tried to unload their illicit cargo from their plane onto trucks, but had to leave the job partly done as they fled. They were forced to abandon both the drugs and the trucks with soldiers closing in on them. Sedena ended up in possession of one abandoned plane, two abandoned trucks and 534 boxes of cocaine weighing half a tonne. (Sedena)
Security Minister Omar García Harfuch shared details of the operation on Wednesday, confirming that no arrests have been made yet.
During routine surveillance of national air space, the military detected an unauthorized flight over southern Chiapas and the Air Force immediately deployed aircraft to investigate.
The suspect plane was seen landing among palm trees and bushes in the southern coastal region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec near the village of Huamúchil, Oaxaca, where two pick-up trucks arrived and their occupants began offloading packages from the plane.
Before they could finish the transfer a military helicopter approached and hovered above the scene, forcing the suspects to make a run for it. However, soldiers and National Guardsmen cornered the suspects near the Laguna Superior, prompting the unknown individuals to abandon the two pickup trucks.
El Universal newspaper reported that residents of the small town “watched the events as if on a movie set, eagerly following every detail, like when the helicopter landed on the soccer field of the local elementary school.”
Police officers on the scene said that “between three and four occupants of the vans escaped, and two or three even snatched two motorcycles from local residents to flee, while others boarded motorcycle taxis and escaped.”
Some suspects apparently managed to escape via the Pan American Highway to the east, while others fled toward the village of San Dionisio to the southwest.
While some agents pursued the suspects, the main force of the military secured the scene and took possession of the illegal cargo.
“This operation is the result of permanent surveillance of Mexican airspace and is part of ongoing actions to combat drug trafficking and weaken the structures of organized crime,” García Harfuch said. “It also represents the neutralization of millions of doses of drugs, preventing their sale and distribution within the country.”
The drugs and vehicles were transported out of the area on Wednesday, García Harfuch said, adding that the case was handed over to the Federal Attorney General’s Office who will continue the investigation and look for those responsible.
The investment "reinforces American leadership in agricultural science while strengthening global food systems," according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson. (Isabel Mateos Hinojosa / Cuartoscuro.com)
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson announced Wednesday that the United States will invest US $40 million in the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an agricultural research center headquartered east of Mexico City in Texcoco, México state.
The Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is a global leader in developing high-yield wheat and corn strains, and maintains a seedbank containing nearly 180,000 wheat and corn varieties. (CIMMYT)
“Food security is strategic security. For the United States, strengthening agricultural resilience, protecting supply chains, and advancing innovation in crop science are core national priorities under President Trump’s leadership,” he wrote before announcing the investment in CIMMYT as “part of this effort.”
“… This investment reinforces American leadership in agricultural science while strengthening global food systems,” Johnson said.
According to the CIMMYT website, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center “grew out of a pilot program sponsored by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1940s and ’50s” that was “aimed at raising farm productivity in Mexico.”
The center developed in its early years under the leadership of prominent United States agronomist Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize winner considered the father of the Green Revolution, a period in the mid-20th century when scientific and agricultural innovation led to a significant increase in crop yields.
Over the decades, CIMMYT scientists have developed a range of high-yielding wheat and corn varieties. The center — a non-profit organization — carries out research and development projects in dozens of countries around the world and receives funding from numerous sources, including governments and private companies.
In his statement, Johnson wrote that “nearly 60 percent of U.S. wheat acreage benefits from CIMMYT-derived varieties, strengthening productivity, climate resistance, and market stability.”
In 2024, CIMMYT’s former head of global wheat improvement, Ravi Singh, told Mexico News Daily that the center has developed wheat varieties that thrive in countries all over the world and which are resistant to deadly disease pathogens.
“Even though you are in Mexico, you can generate very competitive materials for geographies like Australia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, … the Ethiopian highlands, … even Nigeria,” he said.
In a statement, CIMMYT said it “welcomed an award of $40 million from the U.S. Government to advance global food security, strengthen agricultural resilience, and reinforce open scientific collaboration.”
The center said the funding “will strengthen critical platforms across CIMMYT’s research portfolio,” including development of drought- and heat-tolerant maize and wheat varieties; conservation and use of critical genetic resources; development of digital and data-driven agricultural tools; and development of early warning and global surveillance systems that safeguard crops from emerging pests and diseases.
CIMMYT said that “for more than 80 years, the United States and Mexico, together with private philanthropies and international partners, have supported collaborative agricultural research that transformed global food production.”
“This renewed investment builds on that legacy and underscores the shared understanding that resilient food systems are essential to economic stability, national security, and global prosperity,” the center said.
Johnson: ‘Innovation in food systems’ strengthens both Mexico and US
In his statement, Johnson described the United States and Mexico as “agricultural powers with deeply integrated markets,” and said that they “recognize that innovation in food systems strengthens both our nations and contributes to broader regional stability.”
“CIMMYT’s presence in Mexico reflects decades of scientific collaboration,” he wrote.
In announcing the investment, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said food system innovation “strengthens both our nations and contributes to broader regional stability.” (U.S. Embassy)
The ambassador said that under the leadership of Trump and President Claudia Sheinbaum, bilateral cooperation “continues to expand across critical sectors, delivering tangible benefits for the people of Mexico.”
Those benefits, Johnson wrote, include “access to improved wheat varieties with higher yields and stronger resistance to pests, disease and extreme weather” as well as “protection of Mexico’s maize biodiversity through support for one of the world’s largest gene banks.”
Johnson said that two other benefits of bilateral cooperation in agriculture are “reduced fertilizer dependency through improved agronomic practices” and “expanded research trials and innovation hubs across Mexico” that contribute to higher “farmer productivity, boosting incomes, and supporting job creation in rural communities.”
“By leading in this space and deepening collaboration with trusted partners like Mexico, we reinforce our own resilience and expand our shared prosperity,” the ambassador added.
